Rocks on their haunches

by theseventhgeneration
I found a new site this weekend with around 30 rock piles on about 3 acres of land. But before I post those features, something jumped out at me from this area and I felt it was worth bringing attention to - rocks on their haunches. This was brought up here and I can't help but see some similarities.

The first one I noticed is in the foreground of this rock pile picture. It is pointing in a direction different from the others I'm posting. I didn't put a compass on it, but generally speaking it's pointing west.
There are several piles in a line along this ridge. The line of piles comes to a large boulder which I am going to come back to later.

Going up the mountain, now out of the rock pile site, but just above it, I saw this feature again.
This one, that looks like a rock on its haunches, is a stacked rock on boulder that seems to mimic the rocks on their haunches.
Overlooking the rocks in the two prior photos looks like this. If you enlarge the photo, you can see a third rock in the distance. Look closely at the shadows. The direction in this photo is south.
Going back to the boulder, overlooking it, seems to be pointing to a mountain in the distance. The shadows in these pictures look very similar. I bring that up because I didn't get a compass direction on the large boulder. I was only looking at the view of the mountain.

A side shot of the boulder looks very similar to the rocks on their haunches.

Coincidence?

A plateau in Steam Mill State Forest - NY

by theseventhgeneration
Here is a little spot I stopped at on a whim. I drove past several times and looked longingly at the section of stone wall that is so prominent near the horizon from the road below:After following that section of wall (it runs somewhat east-west) I walked in to this site from the north, walking south, and quickly found the first rock pile. Notice in this picture that there is a crude stone row to the left of this rock pile in the photo.As I continued walking south, I found more rock piles, then some boulders. The site is intersected (east-west) by a recent logging trail. This picture is of an interesting boulder with rock piles nearby. There are a few rocks on top of the boulder as well as one rock next to the void under the boulder. The void itself contains an interesting rock with 3 small depressions in it that appear to be natural, yet appealing.Then, a little further south, this arrangement. The rock on the left is something like rocks on their haunches and there is a small rock pile to the right of the standing stone.
I turned my walk back to the north when I came to a ledge of outcroppings. I walked around the outcrops and found this, which I'm not certain about in antiquity. Maybe it's the very square rock with no lichen, or the tree growing there that has pushed up some of the rocks, making them look un-natural. But the opening faces, generally, to the north.A short distance from there, another rock pile. If you enlarge the image, you can see the boulder with the small void under it in the background, just above and a little to the right of this rock pile.Then, this shot, which, although it doesn't look like much, speaks volumes about the site. This is the southern end of that stone row that runs the length of the entire site, except where the logging trail interrupts it. The stone row is in the middle of the plateau. The tree (soft maple, I think) is huge and is growing right in the middle of the end of that stone row. One of the stones leaning on the tree (pushed up by it is my guess) has a small depression in it similar to the ones found in the rock in the void. Just to the right of the tree there is a quartz rock in the pile.The stone row could have easily been built a little farther to the east where it would have served well as a pasture boundary at the edge of the plateau before it goes down the ridge to the creek below. So, why was it built right smack dab in the middle of this plateau?

More from the NY site (or "Rocks on their haunches " - part 2)

by theseventhgeneration
Here are some rock pile pictures from the site I visited this past weekend. The large boulder from the prior post is just visible in the background, between the trees. If you click on this picture, you can also see that rock on top of the rock pile a little better.

There is a "hollow" or "bowl" just off to the right of, yet not visible in, this picture.Two piles on boulders.

This was up the mountain from the site, but it's something I've seen a lot of here in NY. The middle boulder appears to be split and pulled forward. The entire structure is about 6 feet tall if you stand on the low side.
There were a few small rock piles on the summit. Here is one of them.
I've posted additional photos at the Two Headwaters blog.

Similar structures in old photos - NY

by theseventhgeneration

The recent post at Ceremonial Landscapes had me looking back at photos of rocks on their haunches. But then I noticed a similarity in rock piles with niches at the base and found two that are strikingly similar.

This first photo is a recent find, and I posted about it here. Note the boulder on boulder, with the top boulder turned to create a space under it where the niche is located. Also, the rock pile on top is off to one side, in other words, there is not a rock pile covering the entire top of the boulder.
The second photo is a rock pile from a site I previously posted here. These are smaller boulders. They are also turned so that a niche is created below the top boulder. In this case, the upright rock in front of the niche does not completely enclose it, but it still gives the sense of recognition of the space. I hadn't posted this photo before because the lens had a little blur, but it gives a decent view of the rock pile only on one side of the top boulder, similar to the first photo, although much smaller.I'm calling the top boulder "turned", but I'm not sure if that's natural or man-made. At any rate, the similarity overall in these structures enhances the notion that something more than "field clearing" is going on here.

Rocks sitting on their haunches

FFC wants to know if anyone else has noticed this kind of rock structure?
Here is another one:
FFC asks what is this? Has anyone else noticed it? It seems to be looking up in the sky, what direction? [He measured one facing ~25 degrees magnetic.]